Arena PvP system
Overview Arenas are places where teams of players can compete against each other in deathmatch-style PvP. Instead of participating in objective-based PvP, these contests will center around your team's ability to obliterate the other team. Blizzard has planned a system that matches teams of equal strength together to increase fairness and make advancement to the highest tiers more difficult and more rewarding. The arena allows for 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5, but your team may have up to double the amount required for one fight (a 2v2 team can have four people in it). Unlike normal PvP, the arena also allows intra-faction competition. Only level 70 player characters can gain a Team Rating or Arena Points. Characters below level 70 can engage in practice matches. Teams require an Arena Team Charter in order to create an official team. Arena Points are used as the currency to purchase Arena Rewards, which are considered to be on par with some of the mid-to high level PvE rewards. Three Arenas are currently available: * The Ring of Trials in Nagrand * The Circle of Blood in Blade's Edge Mountains * The Ruins of Lordaeron in Tirisfal Glades (released in patch 2.1). Strategy Also the strategy will be quite different between previous PvP and the arena system. Most PvP objectives previously involved holding or running flags which favors teams having certain classes rather then a overall strategy. Druids and Shamans are well known for running flags in WSG while the ability of a paladin to guard a flag is legendary. In arena PvP the goal is to kill your opponents and different class abilities come into play. Tactics and coordination is much more important in such an environment especially since you are facing both horde and alliance teams in the arena. The arena system may fulfill much of the needs of the ex-world PvPers and those who hate flag/base capturing as long as the rank decay is not too steep. Types Players can participate in the Arena in two ways. The type you wish to participate in is selected when speaking to the Arena Battlemaster. Skirmish All players of any level can participate in a skirmish battle. It is identical to the Rated Match, however no Team Ratings or Arena Points are assigned. Rated Match Players who are at least level 70 and on an Arena Team (created with an Arena Team Charter may participate in a Rated Match. After the match, each team has its Team Rating adjusted accordingly (See below for details on Team Rating Calculations). Gameplay Pre-Match Upon zoning into the Arena instance, players start in a "holding area", health, mana, and energy are all restored, all buffs, conjured items are removed and pets are dismissed. (Debuffs will remain, and pets can be resummoned once you zone in.) Players are also given the Arena Preparation buff, which removes the casting cost of all abilities (including Soul Shards. After 60 seconds of preparation, the match commences! The Fight Players battle it out until all the members of one team are defeated. Consumables (except for Bandages) and abilities with a cooldown longer than 15 minutes cannot be used during Arena combat. Once a player dies, they can choose to release and observe the remainder of the match as a ghost. Post-Match Much like the Battlegrounds, after a match is completed a statistics window is shown that displays total damage and healing done. The Arena window also shows the Team Rating adjustment as a result of the match. Arena rating system Copied and pasted from http://relmstein.blogspot.com/2006/09/arena-rating-system.html Blizzard has already released information about how the current honor system is being changed in patch 2.0 and the expansion by becoming a point based system. The real interesting news is that they are releasing another honor system for the arena team battles. Community Manager posts describe the system as being based on the ELO chess system which uses statistical information to decide points in matches. The ELO system takes the score of two opponents and calculates a statistical chance of winning based off those scores. After the match it uses the difference between the calculated chance of winning and the actual results. The difference between the two probabilities is then applied to the maximum amount of points allowed per match. Having a maximum amount makes sure teams have to play a large number of matches instead of just getting lucky and beating one team with a high ranking score. Lets assume a score range of 0 to 3000 and a maximum of 100pt gain per match. I am just using random numbers here along with a simplistic system of calculating odds. Chances are that Blizzard will have a much more accurate system in place. Anyway here's a small example of how the system would work: :Team A's Current Score: 1500pt :Team A's Chance of Winning: 1500 / (1500 + 1580) = .48701 :Team B's Current Score: 1580pt :Team B's Chance of Winning: 1580 / (1500 + 1580) = .51298 :Now Let's say Team A won the battle then :Team A's New Score: 1500 + 100*(1-.48701) = 1500 + 51.299 = 1551.299 :Team B's New Score: 1580 + 100*(0-.51298) = 1580 + -51.298 = 1528.71 :Now Let's say Team B won the battle then :Team A's New Score: 1500 + 100*(0-.48701) = 1500 + -48.701 = 1451.299 :Team B's New Score: 1580 + 100*(1-.51298) = 1580 + 48.701 = 1628.701 :Note: This is only an example to provide an insight on how the system works. These formulas are not accurate. As you can see when a team with a higher ranking score wins a match against a lower ranking team they receive fewer points then if the lower rank team won. Such a system allows newly formed teams to quickly gain rank as they fight teams with much better scores then them. Unlike the current honor system there will be a matching system which sets up teams with similar scores. This was the main problem with the current honor system since pre-made teams of epic equipped people were able to gain large amounts of honor by farming those with lesser gear. In the arena system, gear will still matter but teams will eventually only gain more points by winning against those with similar gear. Blizzard has said on the Arena rating system that the rating point will not decay overtime, even for an extended period. Arena Point Calculation "The transformation from your Team Rating to Arena Points starts off as a linear function, but once you go beyond a certain rating threshold, the function becomes logistic. This means that you will see a significant payoff increase once your Team Rating goes beyond a certain point, but the high-end spectrum of the ratings will eventually notice a decrease in how much bang they get for their buck."http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/arena/ You can stockpile a maximum of 5,000 Arena Points. Formulas: :X = Team Rating, Y = Arena Points :If X>1500: Y = 1426.79/(1+918.836*Power(2.71828, -0.00386405*X)) :Else: Y = 0.38*X-194 :Note: 2v2 teams only earn 60% of the arena points, 3v3 teams get 80%, while 5v5 teams get 100% of the arena points. :*Update: As of 3-13-07, 2v2 teams now receive 70% of the points generated from the equation. Confirmation on 3v3 arena point adjustments is still needed. :*Update: On 29 May 2007, the formulas used to calculate Arena Points were changed as outlined in a post on the Official WoW Forums by Eyonix. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=106864957&pageNo=2&sid=1#33 Pay out requirements To be awarded any points on Tuesday morning (i.e. Monday at midnight) "your team needs to have fought a minimum of ten matches that week ... and a player must have been in at least 30% of all your matches to be eligible for that week's points."http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/arena/ Arena Point Calculators Several Arena Point Calculators have been created by members of the WoW Community. Rewards Equipment Arena Rewards include both class-specific armor sets and a selection of unique weapons, off-hands and relics. All Arena Rewards cost only Arena Points to obtain. See Arena Rewards for a full list of current and past Seasonal Arena Rewards. Titles At the end of each Arena season (3 months), members who has been in atleast 20% of the top Arena teams matches, in each Battlegroup will receive a title according to their standing (highest to lowest): * Gladiator title also grants an Armored Netherdrake. Seasons The seasons are used to determined the winners of Arena Titles and the Armored Netherdrake, players who are in any of the top teams has to been in 20% of all the arena teams fights to gain their Title or Armored Netherdrake. At the end of the Season teams are reset back to having a Team Rating of 1500, but they get to keep their Arena Points. Seasons are back-to-back meaning that when the season ends, the next begins. Season 2 introduces new Arena Gear as well. Current Seasons Season 1 is currently active and is slated to end June 12th 2007. Ended Seasons None yet. Sources * Arena at the official site. * The Arena Rating System by Relmstein * WoW BlueTracker **http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-general/9552122.htm **http://blue.cardplace.com/newcache/us/77778614.htm **http://blue.cardplace.com/newcache/en/54015636.htm Category:Arena PvP